Reds Cure Whatever Ails You, Mets Complete Sweep 10-6

Ah, but for a season of Cincinnati Reds.

Although Tom Glavine was far from convincing, throwing 101 pitches in 6 innings whilst giving up 9 hits, two walks and hitting a batter, because this performance came against the Reds, it was sufficient to allow him to earn his third win against four losses and the first time he's won consecutive starts in more than a year.

He twice got of bases loaded jams. In the 5th, after a double and a hit batsman, he loaded the bases by allowing a single to Reds pitcher Eric Milton and then saw a fortuitously double play go his way on a poor call at first base which frankly, was a bad call and probably should have meant an earlier exit for him. Then, as if to tempt fate, he followed this good fortune by walking Felipe Lopez to load the bases again in the same inning and allowed Sean Casey to collect an RBI single to make the score 4-2 before finally getting Junior to ground out to end the inning.

An inning later, Glavine was again lucky although this time more by Red malaise than umpire error when with two outs and two men on, Reds pitcher Eric Milton singled yet again, but teammate D'Angelo Jimenez was thrown out at home by Cliff Floyd (his fifth assist of the season) to snuff out another potential rally -- Jimenez never even bothered to slide at home plate.

But, these were the Reds and Glavine escaped with a victory despite a mediocre performance aided and abetted by four Cincinnati errors.

Jose Reyes, who has struggled at the plate almost since the onset of May, getting just 10 hits in his last 54 at-bats for a .185 average, had three hits including a stolen base, a pair of triples and seven total bases for the night.

Mike Piazza, batting just .219 on the season before last night went 4 for 4 with a walk and a double to raise his average to .242 after a day's work agains the Reds.

Chris Woodward, playing in rightfield for Cameron who had moved to center to fill in for The Franchise, hit his first-ever homerun as a Met and his first homerun of the season to open the scoring in the second inning with one on and two out to give the Mets a 2-0 lead they would never relinquish.

And most importantly, the Mets, reeling from dropping a series at Chicago against the Cubs and another against the Cardinals at home, will go into their big series against the Yankees having won three in a row to raise their record to 22-19 for the season.

About the only man who didn't benefit from playing the Reds was reliever Manny Aybar, who allowed 3 hits and 3 earned runs in a single inning of slop work to almost single-handedly hand the game back to the Reds after going into the 9th with a daunting 10-3 lead.

*****

From the good news/bad news department comes the information that Pedro Martinez will miss his start in the series opener against the Yankees. Pedro had a cortisone shot in his right hip on Tuesday after an MRI showed inflammation. The good news is that the dodgy hip might go a long way to explaining Pedro's last two shaky outings. Of course, since his hip is so pivotal to his motion, one is left lighting candles and incense in the hope the cortisone shot will work in mysteriously happy ways and the words "Pedro's hips" will never be uttered again.

At the moment, he's due to start the closing game of the series on Sunday against Carl Pavano making it a matchup of the 1997 trade that sent Pedro to Boston.

The rather hideous offside news to this is that it means Victor Zambrano will be pitching the opening game of the series against Kevin Brown and the Yankees which is kind of the equivilent of farting very loudly on a first date.

*****

More good news for the Mets: Atlanta Braves key starter John Thomson was forced to leave Monday night's start against the Padres at PETCO Park because of what the Braves are calling a strained flexor tendon in his right middle finger. The verdict isn't out yet but may bode well for the upcoming series against the Braves in Atlanta. Thomson has been 11-3 with a 2.85 ERA since last year's All-Star break.

Better news is that their closer, Danny Kolb, brought over from Milwaukee to replace John Smoltz, experienced his third blown save in 13 opportunities for the Braves Tuesday night.